July 29, 2025 • 37 mins
The untold story of American agriculture unfolds in this eye-opening conversation with Shelby Watson Hampton, a fourth-generation farmer, winemaker, and advocate for rural women. Did you know just 2% of Americans feed our entire nation? Or that women now make up 36% of all farmers—a number that continues to rise with each agricultural census?
From her family farm in Maryland, where she balances running a vineyard, winery, and wedding venue with advocating for agricultural communities, Shelby reveals how women are transforming the farming landscape. The traditional "work yourself into the ground" mentality is giving way to more holistic approaches that prioritize sustainability and mental health in an industry with one of the highest suicide rates in the nation.
Prepare to have your perception of farming shattered as we explore how cutting-edge technology is revolutionizing agriculture. Solar-powered "farm Roombas" scout fields autonomously while NASA satellite data informs planting decisions. Meanwhile, conservation practices like buffer strips and no-till drilling are helping preserve our precious topsoil—the six inches of earth upon which all human life depends.
Looking to connect with this movement? Check out Shelby's book "Grace, Grit and Lipstick," find your local soil conservation district, or visit a farmers market to support those growing food in your community. The future of farming—and by extension, our food security—depends on understanding and supporting this vital but often overl
Spiritual guru, two-time #1 best-selling author, and higher consciousness advocate Shaman Isis (aka Cynthia L. Elliott) is on a mission to turn the tide of the mental and spiritual health crisis with mindfulness practices, incredible events, powerful content, and motivational storytelling that inspire your heroes journey! Learn more about her books, courses, speaking engagements, book signings, and appearances at ShamanIsis.com.
Ready for a life transformation? Ready to bring your dreams to life? Then you will want Glowup With Shaman Isis: The Collection of inspiring books and courses filled with life lessons and practices that raise your vibration and consciousness.
Ready for a life transformation? Ready to bring your dreams to life? Then you will want Glowup With Shaman Isis: The Collection of inspiring books and courses filled with life lessons and practices that raise your vibration and consciousness.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi and welcome to Glow Up with Shaman Isis.
You guys, it is summertime inFlorida and I am back for
another episode of our fabulouspodcast.
If this is your first time here, glow Up with Shaman Isis
interviews authors and leadersand entrepreneurs about their
journey and what they're workingon, and we talk about topics
(00:23):
that are important to humanity,and today I'm so delighted to be
talking about a topic that hasactually been on my list now for
a couple of months.
First, let me welcome my guest.
My goodness, welcome, shelbyWatson Hampton to the show.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Can you share a little bitabout who you are with our
audience?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited.
The conversation we had beforethis was so amazing, so I can't
wait to expand on it here.
Yeah, so I'm going to give thequick.
What a 60 second speech on me,right?
So I, I live in SouthernMaryland, which is about an hour
South of Washington DC.
We have a family farm, a farmwith my husband and my aunt and
(01:01):
my uncle.
We have a vineyard, a wineryand a wedding barn, which is a
lot of fun and a lot of crazy,and I work a day job at a
nonprofit that also works withfarmers.
And then I have my own littleside hustle, of course, because
everybody does these daysbuilding a community of women in
rural living, like in countryliving farmers, ranchers, rural
entrepreneurs, women who are inthat space and want connection
(01:25):
and, you know, a place to kindof vent occasionally, um, and
figure out how we live our bestversion of this life, um, and
yeah, and that's that's kind ofwhat I do.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's so it's a lot of hats, but it's a lot of fun oh,
I, I, I'm so excited becauseyou, you, you work in like,
several industries that are, tome, some of the most important
that we should be having moreconversations about as a country
.
So I mean between the barn andthe weddings and the vineyard
(01:55):
and the farming and the factthat you're working with farmers
and as well as building acommunity, this is going to be
such a juicy conversation.
So before we started recording,we were having this amazing
conversation about kind of wherefarming stands now in the
country and some of thechallenges that with a lot of
people not really understandingthe issues within farming.
(02:17):
So can you just touch on on thekind of the industry and where
it is kind of right now?
I know that's a big question,but we can.
We can keep going until youfeel like it's satisfied.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Absolutely.
I'm going to try to keep it funand, like you said, juicy.
All right, so let's start withsome fun statistics.
Okay, so picture the populationof the U S, right, the whole
country, like you're looking atthe map.
A hundred percent of the peoplethat live in the U?
S are fed by 2% of the peoplein the U?
S.
So farmers and ranchers andrural small businesses make up
less than 2% of the USpopulation.
(02:49):
Of that 2%, 36% are women andthat number has been rising
every year.
According to the USDA census,which goes out every several
years, women are having aresurgence in agriculture.
They've always been there,right?
They've always been in thebackground.
You think, typical farm mom,farm wife.
She's keeping the house, she'sfeeding the farm hands, she's
doing the chores in the barnyard, she's, you know, keeping the
(03:10):
books, running to town andgetting parts doing what she's
doing.
But a lot of times in previousgenerations and decades, those
women weren't counted as part ofthe business or as part of the
industry.
Now they're being counted.
And also now they're beingcounted and also now they're
taking over family farms andthey're coming up in the
industry.
There are more young women in4-h and ffa than young men right
now, which are some, you know,pre-college agricultural groups,
(03:33):
um, and the rise of women inthis business is is happening,
and so with that, organically,comes a lot of other things that
women bring to business rightIntuition, gut instinct,
maternal nurturing.
We're seeing a change in thelandscape and that's been really
fun for me to watch.
But at the same time there's alot of hardship here.
(03:55):
Farmers and ranchers are undera lot of stress with the tariffs
that are happening.
They're under a lot of stresswith the changing climate and
the weather.
They're under a lot of stresswith the lack of labor
availability.
Certain Americans don't want todo certain types of jobs,
trying to find, you know,foreign labor.
That's a big topic we won't getinto right here, but it is
something really important.
And all of these tie into thelarger American discussion of
(04:17):
what's going on right now.
And it's important because foodsecurity is really important
for everybody in this countryand the farmers and ranchers are
the ones who are growing andraising this product.
And I know you deal a lot withAI, which we talked about a
little bit.
That's another huge resurgencehere.
Farming is very technologicallyadvanced.
(04:37):
A lot of people don't realizethat, but there's even several
farming groups that work closelywith NASA, and I sit on one of
their boards.
Yeah, it's called the nasaacres program, like acres
because you farm in acres.
It's an acronym, but itconnects the satellite data with
the farmers on the ground whoare doing the work.
Um, and there's a lot oftechnical advancements being
made in this industry forconservation, sustainability, um
(04:59):
, labor and a lot of the sciencethat goes behind it.
People don't know.
You know, um, so ai hasobviously integrated itself with
that and, on the base level,you're having conversations
about ai ethics with women likeus who run a small business, and
they're using ai for their copycontent and for their social
media and for their farmnewsletter, and you know that's
a great tool.
(05:19):
But you also get into thequestion about authenticity,
which is really important totoday's consumers too, and like
using it as a tool but not asyour entire toolbox, you know,
in your business and there'sjust a lot happening on all the
levels.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, it's, it's.
I think it's such a fascinatingtopic because it doesn't get
the coverage, but it's, it's.
You know there's the hierarchyof needs and food is way up
there.
It's, frankly, without it,we're kind of toast, and yet we
don't really hear about it ortalk about it.
When I was growing up inTennessee, there were farms
everywhere, you know.
There were horses and cows andall I mean.
(05:55):
I saw it all.
But even in school I remember alittle bit like the classes
where they would learn to fixcars and learn carpentry,
hands-on craftsman skills.
There was a huge percentage ofthe guys particularly that did
farming and they were taught howto farm.
The equipment was a part of theschool, like equipment, and it
was actually really supported,and so I would love to see us
(06:20):
get back to a place where, as acountry, not only do we as an
average person understand theimportance, the value, how it
actually operates, but wesupport small farmers all over
the country and we supportpeople learning at a young age
how to grow their own food andwhat that means and be able to
value it as a skill set.
(06:41):
Are you seeing a resurgence inthe country of interest in
farming?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes and I love this.
So where we are in Maryland,just right outside of DC, so
we're in an urban area but thereis pockets of rural country and
that's where we're working inwe have a huge new and beginning
farmer surge.
So new and beginning farmersare classified as someone who
hasn't farmed more than 10 yearsand is getting into it kind of
like on their own.
So not your generational farmerwho maybe came from their
(07:12):
parents and grandparents, butyou're talking a lot of folks
right out of college or rightout of high school and then
second careers.
Folks worked in technology orthey were in the military or
they were corporate for 20 and30 years and they got burnt out
and they're like I'm going backto the land, I want to throw
myself into something that'smore hands-on, and so where I
work in my day job at anonprofit, we have beginner
(07:33):
farmer programs.
We have grants for them.
We work with the finance placethat will also do like low
interest agricultural loans.
The USDA has beginner farmerrancher programs where you can
also get grants and assistance,and every state in the country
has an extension program.
Typically comes out of yourland grant university, so for us
it's University of Maryland, sofor us it's University of
(07:55):
Maryland extension, but you cangoogle the one in whatever part
of the country you're in andyou're listening to this, and
they have programs just forfarmers new, beginning,
established, diversifying,organic, conventional and their
stuff is free and so you can tapinto that and help build your
business.
It's wonderful because there'sa lot of interest, but it's very
challenging because the topthree barriers for these new and
(08:17):
beginning farmers are access toland, being able to afford land
and equipment and labor.
So we run into that, you know,and so try to help people
through that process and getmore established.
But we are seeing it and weneed it.
I'm going to finish with onemore statistic on this.
The average age of the farmerin the US right now is 58.
They're going to be aging out,they're going to be retiring and
(08:40):
there's going to be a massivegap in people who can come in
and fill those shoes.
So we have been trying to we asan industry, been trying to
encourage people to get in andto break down some of those
barriers to make it, you know, abetter way of living and a
better way of doing business.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's so interesting .
You know, growing up in the 80sand 90s, I remember watching as
capitalism ate up a lot ofindustry.
I watched Walmart come in andtake over.
I watched imports increasedramatically and get crappier
and crappier and more toxicevery year, and I watched
(09:16):
processed food take off and andso the small farmer really got
kind of eaten alive, like manyindustries.
It's just like Walmart killedall the mom and pop tool shops
and hardware stores, I shouldsay, and things like that.
(09:37):
That's something that I watchedhappen to that industry.
Are you seeing aresurgenceurgence kind of a
return to?
I mean, is it?
Is it sort of taking back offagain, or are imports still like
eating us alive?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
um, so, yeah, what you're talking about in the 80s
and 90s, um, it happened in thefarming industry and it happened
.
It was like the go big or gohome mentality.
The go bigger or get out isactually what they call it.
Go big or get out was wasphrase, and so it was buy more
land, buy more equipment, gomore in debt, owe more to the
seed companies, owe more to theequipment companies.
If you're not making big enough, then there's no room for you
(10:15):
here with trying to come backfrom that 80s and 90s mentality.
We're making strides becausepeople are committed to it
bringing the middleman back,bringing the small farmer back,
bringing the diversified andniche farmers back.
Of course, we still need big agand I'm not anti-big ag, I am
(10:37):
pro-everybody ag.
So we need the big guys to feedthe world.
Okay, right, what?
9 billion people on the planetor something like that.
We need the big guys who can doit ethically and sustainably to
feed the world.
But we also need the smallerand the middle men who can feed
their local communities and cando it on a smaller scale and
create jobs in the community andcreate sustainability there and
(10:57):
the actual feeling of knowingyour farmer and knowing your
neighbor, america's trying tocome back to that.
I think we're trying to rebuildcommunity after being separated
for so long.
Um, and food and wine, I mightadd, and any other product
that's agriculturally based is agreat way to do that.
But really quick, before Iforget, um, I'm a huge book nerd
, but there's a book.
(11:17):
Okay, you guys remember themovie erin brockovich, right,
julia roberts, erin brockovich.
In the story she was like,small town woman went after the
big chemical company.
That was like.
There's a book called thefarmer's lawyer and it's by
Sarah Vogel and it's she'sbasically the Erin Brockovich of
the farming community and shetook on the US government in the
80s and 90s when they weredecimating family farms and
(11:38):
foreclosing on them through anold USDA program, and she, she
represented what they called theNorth Dakota Nine and it was
nine farmers in North Dakota andher who, like, went to bat in a
very David and Goliath storyabout big ag and big government.
And I've never met this woman,but I'm a huge stan, so if you
want something juicy, that'sreal, the farmer's lawyer.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I've heard of her before.
I think I remember that I'veheard of, definitely heard of
the before.
I think I think I remember thatI've heard of, definitely heard
of the the case that you thatyou're referring to, Um, yeah,
you know, uh, well, I, one of mybig things that I beat a lot is
that, uh, the drum I beat on alot is that, uh, I have an eco
fashion collection.
I worked in fashion for areally long time and I got very
frustrated because I was, I hadan agency and I was working with
(12:22):
all these brands and I workedwith a lot of fashion writers
and I just kept seeing thatthere wasn't a whole lot of
effort to try to makesustainable clothing, because it
was just all about profit, allabout profit, and I think that's
literally killed this.
It's actually still killingthis country.
The capitalistic all-for-profitidea is so stupid because it's
short-term gains for long-termdestruction, and so you know, um
(12:47):
, uh, you know I got reallyimpressed.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Good, oh sorry, that's really fascinating.
I could talk on that for longerthan we probably have I I
another thing I do is I write um.
I write editorials foragricultural publications, so a
couple of newspapers and acouple of magazines and I did an
article on, like recently, therecommitment to sustainable
fiber and fabric that some folksare doing and how they're tying
(13:10):
it to certain farms wherethey're getting, you know, their
cotton or their wool or theirangora or whatever they're using
, and how that was coming up andwhy it was important.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So I love that, frustrated, so I produced my own
collection, which was the painof two years.
It took two years to produce asmall collection in this country
because of how challenging andhow difficult it has been made,
and to try to get away fromgoing to Asia for all of it was
very difficult.
It really gave me this up closeand personal like, oh my God,
(13:42):
no wonder they don't do it,because it takes time, money,
patience, engineering.
You know, the design aspect ofeach piece alone is its own
nightmare, and I think of ourfood in the same way.
Like how much of our farmingissues does.
The imports, the fact thatimports were allowed to just
sort of get out of control.
(14:03):
Imports, the the fact thatimports were allowed to just
sort of get out of control.
I mean, I believe we should bean exporter of things and not a
country that just that, justimports stuff from other
countries and makes them richwhile we're not making or
selling anything.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
yeah, so ag imports and exports are a huge
discussion.
Um, yes, and we do a lot ofboth.
We do export and we do import.
Um, and those have changed overthe years.
I am by no means an expert inthe trade of those products, but
normally when you're talkinglike imports and exports, a lot
of the stuff we're exporting isgoing to be grain, so corn,
(14:33):
soybeans, things of that nature.
Unfortunately, we bring in alot of beef, like we bring in a
lot of beef from like Argentinaand Brazil, where there's a push
right now to eat more localAmerican beef, and we raise a
lot of beef from like Argentinaand Brazil, where there's a push
right now to eat more localAmerican beef, and we raise a
lot here too.
But we import a lot and thatbrings up questions on ethics
and carbon footprint and youknow buying local versus
(14:56):
shipping something from overseasand you know what are their
sustainability practices ortheir humane animal raising
practices.
You know, but a lot of stuffyou see in the supermarket
unless it says you know Americanraised or.
Or you know, but a lot of stuffyou see in the supermarket
unless it says you know Americanraised or you know American
made, it's coming from somewhereelse.
No-transcript.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
People have also been trained into cheap.
This is another thing thatannoys me.
It's like the whole, like sheenand you know, get it but have
no understanding of at theirpurchases and the vast majority
of them are are about thecheapest thing and and we have
(15:44):
to get to a place where we canplan forward and be willing to
take the short-term pain ofcreating long-term health in our
, in our industries.
Is that you see the same thingin China?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, and you know, the conversation that comes into
that too is when we talk aboutfood access, which is really,
for you know, accessibility tolocal, fresh and affordable food
and you look at the millions ofAmericans that go hungry or
having to use benefits like theSNAP and the WIC and the EBT,
and and many of these folks areworking hard and they're working
(16:16):
multiple low-income jobs andthey can't afford the premium
price that a lot of places haveto put on local food because the
work that does go into it.
Like I said, people have gottenaddicted to cheap and I
acknowledge the privilege thatcomes with, you know, being able
to have enough income to buythe quality product that does
cost more, because there aresome families who cannot do that
(16:37):
.
There are some families whocannot do that.
And that's a largerconversation, too, of where we
are in this country when itcomes to working class families
and and you know prices they canafford and what things are
being charged and the rate ofinflation.
And yeah, it's, it's it's sonuanced and it's complicated and
it's all shades of gray.
I think the best thing for folksis what it's kind of like do
what you can when you can.
(16:58):
You know, be a consciousconsumer, but know that everyone
goes through ups and downs.
There might be times in yourlife when you can't afford to do
that, but when you can, youknow it's great.
And not everything has to bebased on money either.
So capitalism does train usthat way.
But you know, sharing afarmer's Facebook post or
posting about a farmer that youlike on Instagram or sharing
(17:18):
their product costs nothing.
Even if you're not buying it,you know other people might be
able to.
You know, showing up at afarmer's market and greeting
your farmers and you know justbuying a couple of small things
makes a big difference.
Supporting community efforts tonaturally engage sustainably is
important, and there's a lot ofresources out there for that
too.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, I would love to see.
I'm a big fan of farmersmarkets.
I would actually love to seefarmers markets in every city
across the country befinancially supported by the
country, so that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh God, wouldn't that be nice.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, it really would be.
And you know it also givespeople access to healthier food
and a community environment inwhich to learn more about food
and engage with their farmers.
And community creates love, andlove really is what drives the
world forward.
And it sounds silly to somepeople, but it's like no events
in our towns and cities acrossthe country that bring people
(18:10):
into an area together has beenshown scientifically to raise
the, the to help, in so manydifferent ways.
I also say very spiritually,like it raises the vibration.
That's my wording, but theymeasure it in different ways.
Yeah, and another thing that Ithink is really important too is
(18:31):
that you know, I'm so glad tosee that we're going after the
processed foods, but I think weneed to parallel the going after
processed foods andpharmaceuticals and all that
with how are we going toactually create better?
things in other areas, and oneof them is our food.
Soil is a topic that I havetalked about for a really long
(18:52):
time.
I wrote about it in my firstbook, because a lot of people
don't understand that a lot ofour soil that keeps getting
reused has been depleted of itsvitamins and minerals.
So it apparently, they say,takes one orange I mean seven
oranges approximately to equatethe vitamins and minerals of one
that was raised when I was achild.
Is soil a topic of conversationin the farming world?
(19:13):
I mean, I'm sure it is.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I mean, it's the conversation and full disclosure
.
My husband is a farm planner atour soil conservation district,
so soil is a conversation inour household frequently.
And there is actually anotherbug.
There is a soil conservationdistrict in every county, in
every state.
Find yours, ok.
(19:35):
They do pollinator gardens,they give grants, they will come
out and test your soil, they'llhelp you plant something in
your backyard or if you're doingurban farming or rural farming.
There's a soil conservationdistrict in every county, in
every state, and you can Googlethem.
And there is a quote and I amgoing to forget.
I can see this image of thequote and the gentleman who says
(19:56):
it, but I'm going to forget hisname.
The quote and the gentleman whosays it, but I'm going to
forget his name.
Uh, it goes.
Most people don't know that weowe our existence to a six inch
layer of top sale topsoil andthe fact that it occasionally
rains.
It's like the entirety of thehuman condition is based on six
inches of topsoil and the factthat we occasionally get rain um
because you know, that's wherewe get our food.
(20:19):
so, yes, um, I have severalfriends of mine who've gone
through college and got theirmasters and their doctorates
just in soil.
That's what they do.
God forbid you call it dirt intheir presence.
It's not dirt, it's soil.
It has millions of living micro, microorganisms and things in
it.
Um, so yeah, um, so much Icould say on it.
It is the basis of life.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
It really is.
And when it's in crappycondition, uh, the food's in
crappy condition, whicheventually leads to chronic
illnesses and, uh, and issueswithin humanity, the cycle of of
life.
Um, I just lost my train ofthought completely.
I was like what was I going tosay?
So what are some surprises?
(21:04):
Because you brought up a fewthings there, I think, about the
soil, that I think some peoplewill find surprising unless
they're holistic or a healer ora farmer, that kind of thing.
What are some other thingsabout farming or the farm world
or the challenges that peoplemight find surprising, farming
or the farm world or thechallenges that people might
find surprising.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, let's jump off the soil thing and kind of go in
that direction.
So we're talking about the soilconservation districts.
Their whole mission is topreserve soil, to preserve
environments, to help farmersfarm sustainably with the
environment, and so they havewhat they call BMPs best
management practices.
So BMPs, like in our area ofthe country, are going to be
brass waterways, so puttinggrass, that is to catch any
(21:45):
runoff from the farm fieldbefore it hits a waterway like a
creek or a pond or a river.
Buffer strips for the samereasons, doing no-till drilling,
which means you're not turningover the soil, so you're not
drilling into it.
Like when you think of anold-fashioned farmer plowing a
field, you think of the plowturning the soil so you're not
drilling into it.
Like when you think of anold-fashioned farmer plowing a
field, you think of the plowturning the soil over.
A no-trail drill just does aquick little hole where it can
drop the seed in.
It doesn't actually turn thesoil which helps prevent erosion
(22:08):
.
It helps uh keep carbon in thereand carbon capture um.
It helps keep runoff fromhappening.
Um another bmp is like apollinator habitat right we
again.
we owe a lot of our lives topollinators too, Like the bees
are out there doing yeah, thebutterflies, the pollinators, so
things of that nature, and alot of farmers are doing this
and people don't know about itand you don't know what it looks
like.
You're just driving by a fieldand you see like a grassy patch
(22:30):
in the distance that isn't beingworked and it's got like plot
that might be a pollinator, plotthat might be a grass buffer
strip that's actually preventing.
And um, one thing the farmingworld has been really, really
good about over the last 20 ishyears or so is investing money
and time and resources intoconservation.
And so there is a saying in thefarming world that farmers are
(22:53):
the first conservationists forthe first environmentalists
because they work closely withthe animals in the soil and they
base their livelihood off of it.
You know like they're feedingtheir livelihood off of it.
You know like they're feedingtheir families off how good they
can do this.
And you don't want to depleteyour, your family farm.
You know you want to keep it asholistic as possible.
Being said, you do need to docertain things.
I mean, there are certain partsof the country where we're
(23:13):
growing food that you know itdoes need to be sprayed, that
that's going to be unavoidable.
There are a lot of pests outthere.
But there's organic sprays.
There's sprays that are very,very controlled you can be very
careful with, you can do yourbest management practices, but
it's constantly kind of a pushand pull between, like, the
latest and greatest science anda bit more or holistic approach,
and so most people kind ofbalance that they straddle the
(23:35):
line somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Can you paint a little bit of a picture for our
listeners about how AI could beutilized to support farming in
America?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
She's like yes, I love it.
It's funny because before AI aswe know it, artificial
intelligence ever existed.
I mean ever existed, existed inthe farming world.
Ai refers to artificialinsemination.
Okay, artificial inseminationis when you're breeding your
animals and you don't do it livecover, you do it, you know
yourself, um, which has been abest practice for a lot of
(24:14):
industries over the years.
Um, so now, when we're in theindustry of ag and we talk about
AI, you have to.
You have to caveat artificialinsemination or artificial
intelligence, do what you willwith that metaphor.
I'm sure there's somethingFreudian in there, I don't know.
But yes, ai, I think, is both aburden and a blessing.
I think it's going to be likeany technology we create it can
(24:36):
be used wonderfully or it can beused horribly, and it's up to
us as a human society, acollective, which you're working
a lot on, to come to kind ofthe ethical parameters of this
and how we're going to do it.
But a lot of folks don't realizethe science that goes into ag
and has been for decades, likesome of the most cutting edge
science, is coming out of theagricultural industry.
They call it like precisionapplication, precision
(25:01):
conservation, and so AI iswrapped all up in that too.
So I was at a farming workshopjust last week where a company
came in that had created a dronefor the land.
So think of it like a Roomba.
It was like a farm Roomba andit was, you know, like 10 feet
tall and maybe like 16 feet wide, with a very small footprint,
(25:21):
and it just had these two littlewheels and it goes down the
rows of the field and can lookfor weeds and pests.
It can basically scout for thefarmer, like see what's in the
field, and take live video andpicture and identify these
things.
And it runs completely off solar.
It's got solar panels on thetop, completely off solar, so no
electric needed charges itself.
It can be out in the field allyear round.
(25:42):
It's they super sturdy, um, itsends videos and things right
back to the farmer's phone.
The farmer can run it from aphone or an iPad.
And it was funny because I waswatching this thing in the field
and I was like, oh my God,that's cool.
And it turned around andstarted coming back to us and I
looked up and the engineers hadput eyeballs on it Okay, digital
eyeballs on the front and it'sblinking at you as it's coming
(26:03):
back down the field and I waslike, oh my god, it's a giant
tamagotchi, um, and it's justlooking at this thing and you're
like it's cool, it'ssustainable, it's it's, it's
helping with the conservation,it's helping with the farmer's
time and the fact that theydon't have a lot of labor.
And it's ai and here it is andit's you know.
But then you also look at AI aslike, oh my God, the robots are
(26:25):
going to take over the worldand what are we going to do?
So I think, like any industry,it's happening.
We have to have theconversations.
There is no getting off thistrain right.
Humans have committed to this,like the AI revolution is
happening now and the peoplethat want to stop it or go
backwards.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
That never works right Like that never will.
Yeah, yeah, so we have tofigure it out.
Yeah, god.
And, and you know, before westarted recording, we were
talking and you had mentionedthat 36% of farmers are now
women, which I think is reallycool.
Can you talk about that for aminute?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, I love it so much.
So women have historically beeninvolved in family farms and
family businesses, you know,since the beginning of time, but
they weren't counted in theUSDA agricultural census when
you click the box for farmer.
They weren't counted until acouple cycles ago.
Farm or a family businessthey're not just feeding the
(27:22):
family and doing the farm booksand running to town for parts,
you know, and picking theirhusband up and moving equipment.
They're doing that and that's abig part of it.
But a lot of women are takingover the family farm, getting
into farming on their own,starting their own businesses.
And, yeah, 36% of all farmersin the country are now women and
the number goes up every timethey do a USDA census.
(27:42):
And you talked about, by the way, you said you're from Tennessee
.
I heard it's playing in thereand I know you're in Florida and
I was gonna say I wonder ifshe's like the West side of
Florida.
But I caught that littleSouthern bit there which I love.
You were talking about growingup in Tennessee and how there
were farm programs for kids.
There still is a very activeFuture Farmers of America they
go by just FFA now and 4-H in alot of parts of the country and
(28:05):
so you know kids get in that andthey learn different farming
practices and different skillsand the right now in 4-H and FFA
the girls outpace the boys.
More women are interested inthe industry than ever before.
And what comes with that iswomen approach work and life
differently, right, thinkmaternal instinct, think women's
(28:27):
intuition, think likemultitasking and more of like a
holistic 30 foot thousand view.
What we're seeing coming out ofthis is a rejection of the way
we've traditionally been toldfarms and businesses have to run
, which in the farming communityit's work yourself into the
ground until you burn out or die.
Okay, and that's why there's ahuge farmer mental health crisis
, which we don't have time totalk about here, but you can
(28:50):
Google it the farmer suiciderate is one of the highest in
the nation of any industry.
And there have been groupsworking on that now for eight to
10 years.
But women coming in are makinga difference in the fact that
this generation, specificallyI'll say younger Gen X, elder
millennial through the lowermillennials right now are kind
(29:11):
of in that age range.
They're like I'm not going todo this till I, like I'm not
going to work myself into thedirt, like I'm going to take
breaks, I'm going to relax, myfamily will go on a vacation.
Even though we're farmers, youknow we'll find someone to come
in and take care of the animals.
That whole 24, seven, three, 65burnout is a badge of honor is
slowly changing and I credit alot to that for women coming
(29:34):
into the industry and realizinglike this needs to be more
holistically done.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, and I think AI will really help with that.
Yeah, wow, this is.
I could just keep talking toyou and picking that brain.
Can you take a minute to share?
Share a little bit about thevineyard and the the the wedding
barn and all this lovely.
You've got a million thingsgoing on, like so many of us
these days.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yes, we do.
Thank you for that shamelessability to pitch.
I love your frankness.
Yeah, we are Robin Hill Farm andVineyards.
You can find us online.
We are actually women run andwomen owned.
My aunt owns the farm and thenmy aunt, myself and both of our
husbands own the businesscollectively together.
So we're fourth generation.
(30:20):
I'm raising the fifth coming upnow.
He was helping me clean stallsthis morning before we got on
this interview.
Um, so we are open all yearround.
Basically, we take a quickbreak in january, but basically
february through december and weship wine.
So you can find us if you wantto ship stuff out.
Um, we only sell wine on theproperty at our farm winery or
through online, and we've wonsome national and international
(30:42):
awards, which is kind of cool.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
And so that's.
My aunt and uncle are therefull time.
My husband and I are therenights and weekends.
We work other full time jobs.
I mentioned that he's in thesoil conservation district.
I work for an agriculturalnonprofit that helps farmers
market their products, connectconsumers like, utilize
resources.
So I'm in the farming industryfor my day job and then I have
my own little side hustle calledthe farmed life, and the farmed
(31:08):
life is online.
You can find me on Instagram,on the website LinkedIn.
The farmed life is what Istarted as a collective
gathering place for rural women,women in farming and ranching.
Entrepreneurial.
Small town as a place to gather, share resources.
Small Town as a Place to Gather, share Resources, find
Connection, bitch and Moanoccasionally, because we all
need a little therapy every nowand then, and I provide
(31:31):
resources there and I feature alot of other women.
And out of that came the bookthat I wrote and published just
about 18 months ago.
That was actually number one inits category.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Do you have a copy?
You know what, literally, mymother came over last night.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Um, that was actually number one in its category.
Do you have?
Do you have a copy?
You know what?
Literally, my mother came overlast night and was like my
girlfriend in my bunco clubneeds a copy of your book.
Will you sign it?
And I gave it to her.
So I'm sitting here in my housewith no copy in front of me, but
I'm going to tell you the title.
It's grace grit and lipstick.
Oh, I love it, I love it andit's that's the full gray
scritten lipstick.
And then it's, you know, it'sfor the modern farm woman and
(32:07):
her curious farm friends, likeher farm curious friends.
So not just farming or ranchingwomen, but people who are
interested to get a peek behindthe curtain on this world we've
been talking about in here.
It shares some heartfeltstories, it's sure, some
challenges, it's sure, somegreat statistics.
I feature 15 other farm andrural entrepreneurial women in
there, mostly in the US, but afew in Canada and what they do,
(32:27):
and you can find them online andstuff, and it's been a lot of
fun.
So Grace Gritton Lipstick, ifyou want to find it, by Shelby
Watson Hampton it is everywherebooks are sold.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I love it.
You guys I'll put links in thetext for the podcast so you guys
can go check them out.
Shelby Watson Hampton.
Bestselling author,philanthropist, mom, wine
(32:56):
producer.
I mean just I love.
I love the dynamicness of allof that and and a women's
advocate.
Thank you.
Just an incredible mix ofcaring for the community, and we
need that so much.
So, thank you, gosh.
Just an incredible mix of, uh,caring for the community, and we
need that so much.
Uh, so, thank you, gosh.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Um this has been so much fun and I feel so connected
, Like we're going to be friendsnow I know we've already
connected online, but like thisis going to be stuff in the DMs.
Okay, this is going to be like3 AM, I'm thinking and I'm going
to be like I got to text her.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, no, seriously, I felt.
It felt like.
I felt like talking to somebodyI've known forever, which is
awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I love that synchronicity and I do think
that's spiritual and I do thinkthat's a vibration.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you Speaking of spiritual.
If you're not alreadysubscribed to the glow up with
shaman ISIS podcast, what areyou thinking it's intelligent
listening, where we laugh, cryand and share.
You know the battles and talkabout important topics that
matter to the, to the future ofhumanity.
We have entered the age of aiand the age of aquarius and it's
(33:52):
a time of extraordinary changeand we, as a collective, can
manifest the future, uh, that weenvision together, one that
benefits, um, everyone and notjust a handful of people and
powerful companies.
If that's the kind of thingthat interests you, you might
want to go check out those kindsof topics.
If that interests you, youmight want to go check out some
of my books.
I've got Memory Mansion, whichis my memoir, unleash the
(34:16):
Empress, which shares myspiritual practices, and A New
American Dream, which is abouthow America can use the
artificial intelligence toreignite the dream.
And we need that.
We need to use this fourthindustrial revolution to put
ourselves back on the map,because we've lost a lot over
the last 20 years, becausecapitalism kind of sold us out,
and that's just truth.
It's not me whining, but wecan't face our problems if we
(34:38):
don't talk about them honestly.
And if you love to cometogether with other people who
speak the truth and want tobuild a beautiful future, then
you have to join us.
September 4th in Boca Raton, atthe Countess de Hornley Theater,
we are hosting the Soul TechFuture Festival, which is a
benefit for the Soul TechFoundation.
That's my foundation to bringpractices that create a
(35:00):
beautiful lived experiences tounderserved communities,
everything from yoga andmeditation to basic AI skills,
to help people in underservedcommunities be able to succeed
in this new world we've enteredand, most importantly, to help
turn the tide of the mentalhealth crisis.
So come join us at the SoulTechFuture Festival.
You can learn more about it atsoultechfoundationorg and you
(35:23):
can learn more about my work andbooks at shamanicistcom.
And that took a lot longer tosay than I was expecting it to,
but you guys go check it out.
I'm sending you love and wishingyou all the most beautiful,
beautiful summer.
And Shelby, thanks again.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
You know I'm going to be talking to you.
I think we have collaborationsin our future and I love this.
And thank you so much forthinking of me and allowing me
to be on the podcast and tospeak to your guests.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Oh no, I love it.
I love it.
Go be with that little one.
Enjoy your weekend, shelby.
Bye, you guys have a great week.
Hi and welcome to Glow Up with Shaman Isis.
You guys, it is summertime inFlorida and I am back for
another episode of our fabulouspodcast.
If this is your first time here, glow Up with Shaman Isis
interviews authors and leadersand entrepreneurs about their
journey and what they're workingon, and we talk about topics
(00:23):
that are important to humanity,and today I'm so delighted to be
talking about a topic that hasactually been on my list now for
a couple of months.
First, let me welcome my guest.
My goodness, welcome, shelbyWatson Hampton to the show.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Can you share a little bitabout who you are with our
audience?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited.
The conversation we had beforethis was so amazing, so I can't
wait to expand on it here.
Yeah, so I'm going to give thequick.
What a 60 second speech on me,right?
So I, I live in SouthernMaryland, which is about an hour
South of Washington DC.
We have a family farm, a farmwith my husband and my aunt and
(01:01):
my uncle.
We have a vineyard, a wineryand a wedding barn, which is a
lot of fun and a lot of crazy,and I work a day job at a
nonprofit that also works withfarmers.
And then I have my own littleside hustle, of course, because
everybody does these daysbuilding a community of women in
rural living, like in countryliving farmers, ranchers, rural
entrepreneurs, women who are inthat space and want connection
(01:25):
and, you know, a place to kindof vent occasionally, um, and
figure out how we live our bestversion of this life, um, and
yeah, and that's that's kind ofwhat I do.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's so it's a lot of hats, but it's a lot of fun oh,
I, I, I'm so excited becauseyou, you, you work in like,
several industries that are, tome, some of the most important
that we should be having moreconversations about as a country
.
So I mean between the barn andthe weddings and the vineyard
(01:55):
and the farming and the factthat you're working with farmers
and as well as building acommunity, this is going to be
such a juicy conversation.
So before we started recording,we were having this amazing
conversation about kind of wherefarming stands now in the
country and some of thechallenges that with a lot of
people not really understandingthe issues within farming.
(02:17):
So can you just touch on on thekind of the industry and where
it is kind of right now?
I know that's a big question,but we can.
We can keep going until youfeel like it's satisfied.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Absolutely.
I'm going to try to keep it funand, like you said, juicy.
All right, so let's start withsome fun statistics.
Okay, so picture the populationof the U S, right, the whole
country, like you're looking atthe map.
A hundred percent of the peoplethat live in the U?
S are fed by 2% of the peoplein the U?
S.
So farmers and ranchers andrural small businesses make up
less than 2% of the USpopulation.
(02:49):
Of that 2%, 36% are women andthat number has been rising
every year.
According to the USDA census,which goes out every several
years, women are having aresurgence in agriculture.
They've always been there,right?
They've always been in thebackground.
You think, typical farm mom,farm wife.
She's keeping the house, she'sfeeding the farm hands, she's
doing the chores in the barnyard, she's, you know, keeping the
(03:10):
books, running to town andgetting parts doing what she's
doing.
But a lot of times in previousgenerations and decades, those
women weren't counted as part ofthe business or as part of the
industry.
Now they're being counted.
And also now they're beingcounted and also now they're
taking over family farms andthey're coming up in the
industry.
There are more young women in4-h and ffa than young men right
now, which are some, you know,pre-college agricultural groups,
(03:33):
um, and the rise of women inthis business is is happening,
and so with that, organically,comes a lot of other things that
women bring to business rightIntuition, gut instinct,
maternal nurturing.
We're seeing a change in thelandscape and that's been really
fun for me to watch.
But at the same time there's alot of hardship here.
(03:55):
Farmers and ranchers are undera lot of stress with the tariffs
that are happening.
They're under a lot of stresswith the changing climate and
the weather.
They're under a lot of stresswith the lack of labor
availability.
Certain Americans don't want todo certain types of jobs,
trying to find, you know,foreign labor.
That's a big topic we won't getinto right here, but it is
something really important.
And all of these tie into thelarger American discussion of
(04:17):
what's going on right now.
And it's important because foodsecurity is really important
for everybody in this countryand the farmers and ranchers are
the ones who are growing andraising this product.
And I know you deal a lot withAI, which we talked about a
little bit.
That's another huge resurgencehere.
Farming is very technologicallyadvanced.
(04:37):
A lot of people don't realizethat, but there's even several
farming groups that work closelywith NASA, and I sit on one of
their boards.
Yeah, it's called the nasaacres program, like acres
because you farm in acres.
It's an acronym, but itconnects the satellite data with
the farmers on the ground whoare doing the work.
Um, and there's a lot oftechnical advancements being
made in this industry forconservation, sustainability, um
(04:59):
, labor and a lot of the sciencethat goes behind it.
People don't know.
You know, um, so ai hasobviously integrated itself with
that and, on the base level,you're having conversations
about ai ethics with women likeus who run a small business, and
they're using ai for their copycontent and for their social
media and for their farmnewsletter, and you know that's
a great tool.
(05:19):
But you also get into thequestion about authenticity,
which is really important totoday's consumers too, and like
using it as a tool but not asyour entire toolbox, you know,
in your business and there'sjust a lot happening on all the
levels.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, it's, it's.
I think it's such a fascinatingtopic because it doesn't get
the coverage, but it's, it's.
You know there's the hierarchyof needs and food is way up
there.
It's, frankly, without it,we're kind of toast, and yet we
don't really hear about it ortalk about it.
When I was growing up inTennessee, there were farms
everywhere, you know.
There were horses and cows andall I mean.
(05:55):
I saw it all.
But even in school I remember alittle bit like the classes
where they would learn to fixcars and learn carpentry,
hands-on craftsman skills.
There was a huge percentage ofthe guys particularly that did
farming and they were taught howto farm.
The equipment was a part of theschool, like equipment, and it
was actually really supported,and so I would love to see us
(06:20):
get back to a place where, as acountry, not only do we as an
average person understand theimportance, the value, how it
actually operates, but wesupport small farmers all over
the country and we supportpeople learning at a young age
how to grow their own food andwhat that means and be able to
value it as a skill set.
(06:41):
Are you seeing a resurgence inthe country of interest in
farming?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes and I love this.
So where we are in Maryland,just right outside of DC, so
we're in an urban area but thereis pockets of rural country and
that's where we're working inwe have a huge new and beginning
farmer surge.
So new and beginning farmersare classified as someone who
hasn't farmed more than 10 yearsand is getting into it kind of
like on their own.
So not your generational farmerwho maybe came from their
(07:12):
parents and grandparents, butyou're talking a lot of folks
right out of college or rightout of high school and then
second careers.
Folks worked in technology orthey were in the military or
they were corporate for 20 and30 years and they got burnt out
and they're like I'm going backto the land, I want to throw
myself into something that'smore hands-on, and so where I
work in my day job at anonprofit, we have beginner
(07:33):
farmer programs.
We have grants for them.
We work with the finance placethat will also do like low
interest agricultural loans.
The USDA has beginner farmerrancher programs where you can
also get grants and assistance,and every state in the country
has an extension program.
Typically comes out of yourland grant university, so for us
it's University of Maryland, sofor us it's University of
(07:55):
Maryland extension, but you cangoogle the one in whatever part
of the country you're in andyou're listening to this, and
they have programs just forfarmers new, beginning,
established, diversifying,organic, conventional and their
stuff is free and so you can tapinto that and help build your
business.
It's wonderful because there'sa lot of interest, but it's very
challenging because the topthree barriers for these new and
(08:17):
beginning farmers are access toland, being able to afford land
and equipment and labor.
So we run into that, you know,and so try to help people
through that process and getmore established.
But we are seeing it and weneed it.
I'm going to finish with onemore statistic on this.
The average age of the farmerin the US right now is 58.
They're going to be aging out,they're going to be retiring and
(08:40):
there's going to be a massivegap in people who can come in
and fill those shoes.
So we have been trying to we asan industry, been trying to
encourage people to get in andto break down some of those
barriers to make it, you know, abetter way of living and a
better way of doing business.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's so interesting .
You know, growing up in the 80sand 90s, I remember watching as
capitalism ate up a lot ofindustry.
I watched Walmart come in andtake over.
I watched imports increasedramatically and get crappier
and crappier and more toxicevery year, and I watched
(09:16):
processed food take off and andso the small farmer really got
kind of eaten alive, like manyindustries.
It's just like Walmart killedall the mom and pop tool shops
and hardware stores, I shouldsay, and things like that.
(09:37):
That's something that I watchedhappen to that industry.
Are you seeing aresurgenceurgence kind of a
return to?
I mean, is it?
Is it sort of taking back offagain, or are imports still like
eating us alive?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
um, so, yeah, what you're talking about in the 80s
and 90s, um, it happened in thefarming industry and it happened
.
It was like the go big or gohome mentality.
The go bigger or get out isactually what they call it.
Go big or get out was wasphrase, and so it was buy more
land, buy more equipment, gomore in debt, owe more to the
seed companies, owe more to theequipment companies.
If you're not making big enough, then there's no room for you
(10:15):
here with trying to come backfrom that 80s and 90s mentality.
We're making strides becausepeople are committed to it
bringing the middleman back,bringing the small farmer back,
bringing the diversified andniche farmers back.
Of course, we still need big agand I'm not anti-big ag, I am
(10:37):
pro-everybody ag.
So we need the big guys to feedthe world.
Okay, right, what?
9 billion people on the planetor something like that.
We need the big guys who can doit ethically and sustainably to
feed the world.
But we also need the smallerand the middle men who can feed
their local communities and cando it on a smaller scale and
create jobs in the community andcreate sustainability there and
(10:57):
the actual feeling of knowingyour farmer and knowing your
neighbor, america's trying tocome back to that.
I think we're trying to rebuildcommunity after being separated
for so long.
Um, and food and wine, I mightadd, and any other product
that's agriculturally based is agreat way to do that.
But really quick, before Iforget, um, I'm a huge book nerd
, but there's a book.
(11:17):
Okay, you guys remember themovie erin brockovich, right,
julia roberts, erin brockovich.
In the story she was like,small town woman went after the
big chemical company.
That was like.
There's a book called thefarmer's lawyer and it's by
Sarah Vogel and it's she'sbasically the Erin Brockovich of
the farming community and shetook on the US government in the
80s and 90s when they weredecimating family farms and
(11:38):
foreclosing on them through anold USDA program, and she, she
represented what they called theNorth Dakota Nine and it was
nine farmers in North Dakota andher who, like, went to bat in a
very David and Goliath storyabout big ag and big government.
And I've never met this woman,but I'm a huge stan, so if you
want something juicy, that'sreal, the farmer's lawyer.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I've heard of her before.
I think I remember that I'veheard of, definitely heard of
the before.
I think I think I remember thatI've heard of, definitely heard
of the the case that you thatyou're referring to, Um, yeah,
you know, uh, well, I, one of mybig things that I beat a lot is
that, uh, the drum I beat on alot is that, uh, I have an eco
fashion collection.
I worked in fashion for areally long time and I got very
frustrated because I was, I hadan agency and I was working with
(12:22):
all these brands and I workedwith a lot of fashion writers
and I just kept seeing thatthere wasn't a whole lot of
effort to try to makesustainable clothing, because it
was just all about profit, allabout profit, and I think that's
literally killed this.
It's actually still killingthis country.
The capitalistic all-for-profitidea is so stupid because it's
short-term gains for long-termdestruction, and so you know, um
(12:47):
, uh, you know I got reallyimpressed.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Good, oh sorry, that's really fascinating.
I could talk on that for longerthan we probably have I I
another thing I do is I write um.
I write editorials foragricultural publications, so a
couple of newspapers and acouple of magazines and I did an
article on, like recently, therecommitment to sustainable
fiber and fabric that some folksare doing and how they're tying
(13:10):
it to certain farms wherethey're getting, you know, their
cotton or their wool or theirangora or whatever they're using
, and how that was coming up andwhy it was important.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So I love that, frustrated, so I produced my own
collection, which was the painof two years.
It took two years to produce asmall collection in this country
because of how challenging andhow difficult it has been made,
and to try to get away fromgoing to Asia for all of it was
very difficult.
It really gave me this up closeand personal like, oh my God,
(13:42):
no wonder they don't do it,because it takes time, money,
patience, engineering.
You know, the design aspect ofeach piece alone is its own
nightmare, and I think of ourfood in the same way.
Like how much of our farmingissues does.
The imports, the fact thatimports were allowed to just
sort of get out of control.
(14:03):
Imports, the the fact thatimports were allowed to just
sort of get out of control.
I mean, I believe we should bean exporter of things and not a
country that just that, justimports stuff from other
countries and makes them richwhile we're not making or
selling anything.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
yeah, so ag imports and exports are a huge
discussion.
Um, yes, and we do a lot ofboth.
We do export and we do import.
Um, and those have changed overthe years.
I am by no means an expert inthe trade of those products, but
normally when you're talkinglike imports and exports, a lot
of the stuff we're exporting isgoing to be grain, so corn,
(14:33):
soybeans, things of that nature.
Unfortunately, we bring in alot of beef, like we bring in a
lot of beef from like Argentinaand Brazil, where there's a push
right now to eat more localAmerican beef, and we raise a
lot of beef from like Argentinaand Brazil, where there's a push
right now to eat more localAmerican beef, and we raise a
lot here too.
But we import a lot and thatbrings up questions on ethics
and carbon footprint and youknow buying local versus
(14:56):
shipping something from overseasand you know what are their
sustainability practices ortheir humane animal raising
practices.
You know, but a lot of stuffyou see in the supermarket
unless it says you know Americanraised or.
Or you know, but a lot of stuffyou see in the supermarket
unless it says you know Americanraised or you know American
made, it's coming from somewhereelse.
No-transcript.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
People have also been trained into cheap.
This is another thing thatannoys me.
It's like the whole, like sheenand you know, get it but have
no understanding of at theirpurchases and the vast majority
of them are are about thecheapest thing and and we have
(15:44):
to get to a place where we canplan forward and be willing to
take the short-term pain ofcreating long-term health in our
, in our industries.
Is that you see the same thingin China?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, and you know, the conversation that comes into
that too is when we talk aboutfood access, which is really,
for you know, accessibility tolocal, fresh and affordable food
and you look at the millions ofAmericans that go hungry or
having to use benefits like theSNAP and the WIC and the EBT,
and and many of these folks areworking hard and they're working
(16:16):
multiple low-income jobs andthey can't afford the premium
price that a lot of places haveto put on local food because the
work that does go into it.
Like I said, people have gottenaddicted to cheap and I
acknowledge the privilege thatcomes with, you know, being able
to have enough income to buythe quality product that does
cost more, because there aresome families who cannot do that
(16:37):
.
There are some families whocannot do that.
And that's a largerconversation, too, of where we
are in this country when itcomes to working class families
and and you know prices they canafford and what things are
being charged and the rate ofinflation.
And yeah, it's, it's it's sonuanced and it's complicated and
it's all shades of gray.
I think the best thing for folksis what it's kind of like do
what you can when you can.
(16:58):
You know, be a consciousconsumer, but know that everyone
goes through ups and downs.
There might be times in yourlife when you can't afford to do
that, but when you can, youknow it's great.
And not everything has to bebased on money either.
So capitalism does train usthat way.
But you know, sharing afarmer's Facebook post or
posting about a farmer that youlike on Instagram or sharing
(17:18):
their product costs nothing.
Even if you're not buying it,you know other people might be
able to.
You know, showing up at afarmer's market and greeting
your farmers and you know justbuying a couple of small things
makes a big difference.
Supporting community efforts tonaturally engage sustainably is
important, and there's a lot ofresources out there for that
too.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, I would love to see.
I'm a big fan of farmersmarkets.
I would actually love to seefarmers markets in every city
across the country befinancially supported by the
country, so that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh God, wouldn't that be nice.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, it really would be.
And you know it also givespeople access to healthier food
and a community environment inwhich to learn more about food
and engage with their farmers.
And community creates love, andlove really is what drives the
world forward.
And it sounds silly to somepeople, but it's like no events
in our towns and cities acrossthe country that bring people
(18:10):
into an area together has beenshown scientifically to raise
the, the to help, in so manydifferent ways.
I also say very spiritually,like it raises the vibration.
That's my wording, but theymeasure it in different ways.
Yeah, and another thing that Ithink is really important too is
(18:31):
that you know, I'm so glad tosee that we're going after the
processed foods, but I think weneed to parallel the going after
processed foods andpharmaceuticals and all that
with how are we going toactually create better?
things in other areas, and oneof them is our food.
Soil is a topic that I havetalked about for a really long
(18:52):
time.
I wrote about it in my firstbook, because a lot of people
don't understand that a lot ofour soil that keeps getting
reused has been depleted of itsvitamins and minerals.
So it apparently, they say,takes one orange I mean seven
oranges approximately to equatethe vitamins and minerals of one
that was raised when I was achild.
Is soil a topic of conversationin the farming world?
(19:13):
I mean, I'm sure it is.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I mean, it's the conversation and full disclosure
.
My husband is a farm planner atour soil conservation district,
so soil is a conversation inour household frequently.
And there is actually anotherbug.
There is a soil conservationdistrict in every county, in
every state.
Find yours, ok.
(19:35):
They do pollinator gardens,they give grants, they will come
out and test your soil, they'llhelp you plant something in
your backyard or if you're doingurban farming or rural farming.
There's a soil conservationdistrict in every county, in
every state, and you can Googlethem.
And there is a quote and I amgoing to forget.
I can see this image of thequote and the gentleman who says
(19:56):
it, but I'm going to forget hisname.
The quote and the gentleman whosays it, but I'm going to
forget his name.
Uh, it goes.
Most people don't know that weowe our existence to a six inch
layer of top sale topsoil andthe fact that it occasionally
rains.
It's like the entirety of thehuman condition is based on six
inches of topsoil and the factthat we occasionally get rain um
because you know, that's wherewe get our food.
(20:19):
so, yes, um, I have severalfriends of mine who've gone
through college and got theirmasters and their doctorates
just in soil.
That's what they do.
God forbid you call it dirt intheir presence.
It's not dirt, it's soil.
It has millions of living micro, microorganisms and things in
it.
Um, so yeah, um, so much Icould say on it.
It is the basis of life.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
It really is.
And when it's in crappycondition, uh, the food's in
crappy condition, whicheventually leads to chronic
illnesses and, uh, and issueswithin humanity, the cycle of of
life.
Um, I just lost my train ofthought completely.
I was like what was I going tosay?
So what are some surprises?
(21:04):
Because you brought up a fewthings there, I think, about the
soil, that I think some peoplewill find surprising unless
they're holistic or a healer ora farmer, that kind of thing.
What are some other thingsabout farming or the farm world
or the challenges that peoplemight find surprising, farming
or the farm world or thechallenges that people might
find surprising.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, let's jump off the soil thing and kind of go in
that direction.
So we're talking about the soilconservation districts.
Their whole mission is topreserve soil, to preserve
environments, to help farmersfarm sustainably with the
environment, and so they havewhat they call BMPs best
management practices.
So BMPs, like in our area ofthe country, are going to be
brass waterways, so puttinggrass, that is to catch any
(21:45):
runoff from the farm fieldbefore it hits a waterway like a
creek or a pond or a river.
Buffer strips for the samereasons, doing no-till drilling,
which means you're not turningover the soil, so you're not
drilling into it.
Like when you think of anold-fashioned farmer plowing a
field, you think of the plowturning the soil so you're not
drilling into it.
Like when you think of anold-fashioned farmer plowing a
field, you think of the plowturning the soil over.
A no-trail drill just does aquick little hole where it can
drop the seed in.
It doesn't actually turn thesoil which helps prevent erosion
(22:08):
.
It helps uh keep carbon in thereand carbon capture um.
It helps keep runoff fromhappening.
Um another bmp is like apollinator habitat right we
again.
we owe a lot of our lives topollinators too, Like the bees
are out there doing yeah, thebutterflies, the pollinators, so
things of that nature, and alot of farmers are doing this
and people don't know about itand you don't know what it looks
like.
You're just driving by a fieldand you see like a grassy patch
(22:30):
in the distance that isn't beingworked and it's got like plot
that might be a pollinator, plotthat might be a grass buffer
strip that's actually preventing.
And um, one thing the farmingworld has been really, really
good about over the last 20 ishyears or so is investing money
and time and resources intoconservation.
And so there is a saying in thefarming world that farmers are
(22:53):
the first conservationists forthe first environmentalists
because they work closely withthe animals in the soil and they
base their livelihood off of it.
You know like they're feedingtheir livelihood off of it.
You know like they're feedingtheir families off how good they
can do this.
And you don't want to depleteyour, your family farm.
You know you want to keep it asholistic as possible.
Being said, you do need to docertain things.
I mean, there are certain partsof the country where we're
(23:13):
growing food that you know itdoes need to be sprayed, that
that's going to be unavoidable.
There are a lot of pests outthere.
But there's organic sprays.
There's sprays that are very,very controlled you can be very
careful with, you can do yourbest management practices, but
it's constantly kind of a pushand pull between, like, the
latest and greatest science anda bit more or holistic approach,
and so most people kind ofbalance that they straddle the
(23:35):
line somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Can you paint a little bit of a picture for our
listeners about how AI could beutilized to support farming in
America?
Speaker 2 (23:53):
She's like yes, I love it.
It's funny because before AI aswe know it, artificial
intelligence ever existed.
I mean ever existed, existed inthe farming world.
Ai refers to artificialinsemination.
Okay, artificial inseminationis when you're breeding your
animals and you don't do it livecover, you do it, you know
yourself, um, which has been abest practice for a lot of
(24:14):
industries over the years.
Um, so now, when we're in theindustry of ag and we talk about
AI, you have to.
You have to caveat artificialinsemination or artificial
intelligence, do what you willwith that metaphor.
I'm sure there's somethingFreudian in there, I don't know.
But yes, ai, I think, is both aburden and a blessing.
I think it's going to be likeany technology we create it can
(24:36):
be used wonderfully or it can beused horribly, and it's up to
us as a human society, acollective, which you're working
a lot on, to come to kind ofthe ethical parameters of this
and how we're going to do it.
But a lot of folks don't realizethe science that goes into ag
and has been for decades, likesome of the most cutting edge
science, is coming out of theagricultural industry.
They call it like precisionapplication, precision
(25:01):
conservation, and so AI iswrapped all up in that too.
So I was at a farming workshopjust last week where a company
came in that had created a dronefor the land.
So think of it like a Roomba.
It was like a farm Roomba andit was, you know, like 10 feet
tall and maybe like 16 feet wide, with a very small footprint,
(25:21):
and it just had these two littlewheels and it goes down the
rows of the field and can lookfor weeds and pests.
It can basically scout for thefarmer, like see what's in the
field, and take live video andpicture and identify these
things.
And it runs completely off solar.
It's got solar panels on thetop, completely off solar, so no
electric needed charges itself.
It can be out in the field allyear round.
(25:42):
It's they super sturdy, um, itsends videos and things right
back to the farmer's phone.
The farmer can run it from aphone or an iPad.
And it was funny because I waswatching this thing in the field
and I was like, oh my God,that's cool.
And it turned around andstarted coming back to us and I
looked up and the engineers hadput eyeballs on it Okay, digital
eyeballs on the front and it'sblinking at you as it's coming
(26:03):
back down the field and I waslike, oh my god, it's a giant
tamagotchi, um, and it's justlooking at this thing and you're
like it's cool, it'ssustainable, it's it's, it's
helping with the conservation,it's helping with the farmer's
time and the fact that theydon't have a lot of labor.
And it's ai and here it is andit's you know.
But then you also look at AI aslike, oh my God, the robots are
(26:25):
going to take over the worldand what are we going to do?
So I think, like any industry,it's happening.
We have to have theconversations.
There is no getting off thistrain right.
Humans have committed to this,like the AI revolution is
happening now and the peoplethat want to stop it or go
backwards.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
That never works right Like that never will.
Yeah, yeah, so we have tofigure it out.
Yeah, god.
And, and you know, before westarted recording, we were
talking and you had mentionedthat 36% of farmers are now
women, which I think is reallycool.
Can you talk about that for aminute?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, I love it so much.
So women have historically beeninvolved in family farms and
family businesses, you know,since the beginning of time, but
they weren't counted in theUSDA agricultural census when
you click the box for farmer.
They weren't counted until acouple cycles ago.
Farm or a family businessthey're not just feeding the
(27:22):
family and doing the farm booksand running to town for parts,
you know, and picking theirhusband up and moving equipment.
They're doing that and that's abig part of it.
But a lot of women are takingover the family farm, getting
into farming on their own,starting their own businesses.
And, yeah, 36% of all farmersin the country are now women and
the number goes up every timethey do a USDA census.
(27:42):
And you talked about, by the way, you said you're from Tennessee
.
I heard it's playing in thereand I know you're in Florida and
I was gonna say I wonder ifshe's like the West side of
Florida.
But I caught that littleSouthern bit there which I love.
You were talking about growingup in Tennessee and how there
were farm programs for kids.
There still is a very activeFuture Farmers of America they
go by just FFA now and 4-H in alot of parts of the country and
(28:05):
so you know kids get in that andthey learn different farming
practices and different skillsand the right now in 4-H and FFA
the girls outpace the boys.
More women are interested inthe industry than ever before.
And what comes with that iswomen approach work and life
differently, right, thinkmaternal instinct, think women's
(28:27):
intuition, think likemultitasking and more of like a
holistic 30 foot thousand view.
What we're seeing coming out ofthis is a rejection of the way
we've traditionally been toldfarms and businesses have to run
, which in the farming communityit's work yourself into the
ground until you burn out or die.
Okay, and that's why there's ahuge farmer mental health crisis
, which we don't have time totalk about here, but you can
(28:50):
Google it the farmer suiciderate is one of the highest in
the nation of any industry.
And there have been groupsworking on that now for eight to
10 years.
But women coming in are makinga difference in the fact that
this generation, specificallyI'll say younger Gen X, elder
millennial through the lowermillennials right now are kind
(29:11):
of in that age range.
They're like I'm not going todo this till I, like I'm not
going to work myself into thedirt, like I'm going to take
breaks, I'm going to relax, myfamily will go on a vacation.
Even though we're farmers, youknow we'll find someone to come
in and take care of the animals.
That whole 24, seven, three, 65burnout is a badge of honor is
slowly changing and I credit alot to that for women coming
(29:34):
into the industry and realizinglike this needs to be more
holistically done.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, and I think AI will really help with that.
Yeah, wow, this is.
I could just keep talking toyou and picking that brain.
Can you take a minute to share?
Share a little bit about thevineyard and the the the wedding
barn and all this lovely.
You've got a million thingsgoing on, like so many of us
these days.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yes, we do.
Thank you for that shamelessability to pitch.
I love your frankness.
Yeah, we are Robin Hill Farm andVineyards.
You can find us online.
We are actually women run andwomen owned.
My aunt owns the farm and thenmy aunt, myself and both of our
husbands own the businesscollectively together.
So we're fourth generation.
(30:20):
I'm raising the fifth coming upnow.
He was helping me clean stallsthis morning before we got on
this interview.
Um, so we are open all yearround.
Basically, we take a quickbreak in january, but basically
february through december and weship wine.
So you can find us if you wantto ship stuff out.
Um, we only sell wine on theproperty at our farm winery or
through online, and we've wonsome national and international
(30:42):
awards, which is kind of cool.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
And so that's.
My aunt and uncle are therefull time.
My husband and I are therenights and weekends.
We work other full time jobs.
I mentioned that he's in thesoil conservation district.
I work for an agriculturalnonprofit that helps farmers
market their products, connectconsumers like, utilize
resources.
So I'm in the farming industryfor my day job and then I have
my own little side hustle calledthe farmed life, and the farmed
(31:08):
life is online.
You can find me on Instagram,on the website LinkedIn.
The farmed life is what Istarted as a collective
gathering place for rural women,women in farming and ranching.
Entrepreneurial.
Small town as a place to gather, share resources.
Small Town as a Place to Gather, share Resources, find
Connection, bitch and Moanoccasionally, because we all
need a little therapy every nowand then, and I provide
(31:31):
resources there and I feature alot of other women.
And out of that came the bookthat I wrote and published just
about 18 months ago.
That was actually number one inits category.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Do you have a copy?
You know what, literally, mymother came over last night.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Um, that was actually number one in its category.
Do you have?
Do you have a copy?
You know what?
Literally, my mother came overlast night and was like my
girlfriend in my bunco clubneeds a copy of your book.
Will you sign it?
And I gave it to her.
So I'm sitting here in my housewith no copy in front of me, but
I'm going to tell you the title.
It's grace grit and lipstick.
Oh, I love it, I love it andit's that's the full gray
scritten lipstick.
And then it's, you know, it'sfor the modern farm woman and
(32:07):
her curious farm friends, likeher farm curious friends.
So not just farming or ranchingwomen, but people who are
interested to get a peek behindthe curtain on this world we've
been talking about in here.
It shares some heartfeltstories, it's sure, some
challenges, it's sure, somegreat statistics.
I feature 15 other farm andrural entrepreneurial women in
there, mostly in the US, but afew in Canada and what they do,
(32:27):
and you can find them online andstuff, and it's been a lot of
fun.
So Grace Gritton Lipstick, ifyou want to find it, by Shelby
Watson Hampton it is everywherebooks are sold.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I love it.
You guys I'll put links in thetext for the podcast so you guys
can go check them out.
Shelby Watson Hampton.
Bestselling author,philanthropist, mom, wine
(32:56):
producer.
I mean just I love.
I love the dynamicness of allof that and and a women's
advocate.
Thank you.
Just an incredible mix ofcaring for the community, and we
need that so much.
So, thank you, gosh.
Just an incredible mix of, uh,caring for the community, and we
need that so much.
Uh, so, thank you, gosh.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Um this has been so much fun and I feel so connected
, Like we're going to be friendsnow I know we've already
connected online, but like thisis going to be stuff in the DMs.
Okay, this is going to be like3 AM, I'm thinking and I'm going
to be like I got to text her.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, no, seriously, I felt.
It felt like.
I felt like talking to somebodyI've known forever, which is
awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I love that synchronicity and I do think
that's spiritual and I do thinkthat's a vibration.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you Speaking of spiritual.
If you're not alreadysubscribed to the glow up with
shaman ISIS podcast, what areyou thinking it's intelligent
listening, where we laugh, cryand and share.
You know the battles and talkabout important topics that
matter to the, to the future ofhumanity.
We have entered the age of aiand the age of aquarius and it's
(33:52):
a time of extraordinary changeand we, as a collective, can
manifest the future, uh, that weenvision together, one that
benefits, um, everyone and notjust a handful of people and
powerful companies.
If that's the kind of thingthat interests you, you might
want to go check out those kindsof topics.
If that interests you, youmight want to go check out some
of my books.
I've got Memory Mansion, whichis my memoir, unleash the
(34:16):
Empress, which shares myspiritual practices, and A New
American Dream, which is abouthow America can use the
artificial intelligence toreignite the dream.
And we need that.
We need to use this fourthindustrial revolution to put
ourselves back on the map,because we've lost a lot over
the last 20 years, becausecapitalism kind of sold us out,
and that's just truth.
It's not me whining, but wecan't face our problems if we
(34:38):
don't talk about them honestly.
And if you love to cometogether with other people who
speak the truth and want tobuild a beautiful future, then
you have to join us.
September 4th in Boca Raton, atthe Countess de Hornley Theater,
we are hosting the Soul TechFuture Festival, which is a
benefit for the Soul TechFoundation.
That's my foundation to bringpractices that create a
(35:00):
beautiful lived experiences tounderserved communities,
everything from yoga andmeditation to basic AI skills,
to help people in underservedcommunities be able to succeed
in this new world we've enteredand, most importantly, to help
turn the tide of the mentalhealth crisis.
So come join us at the SoulTechFuture Festival.
You can learn more about it atsoultechfoundationorg and you
(35:23):
can learn more about my work andbooks at shamanicistcom.
And that took a lot longer tosay than I was expecting it to,
but you guys go check it out.
I'm sending you love and wishingyou all the most beautiful,
beautiful summer.
And Shelby, thanks again.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
You know I'm going to be talking to you.
I think we have collaborationsin our future and I love this.
And thank you so much forthinking of me and allowing me
to be on the podcast and tospeak to your guests.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Oh no, I love it.
I love it.
Go be with that little one.
Enjoy your weekend, shelby.
Bye, you guys have a great week.
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